Road to Revolution: A Century of Russian Radicalism

THE news of Nicholas's death brought a general sense of
relief. All thinking people felt that the event marked the
end of an era, and that there were bound to be decisive
changes. The long winter had come to an end and the tumult of
spring was sweeping through the political air. Tongues were
loosened, minds were aroused. 'Whoever was not alive in Russia
in 1856,' wrote Tolstoy, 'does not know what life is.'

At first the new Czar, busy bringing the war to an end, could
not give thought to the great reforms awaited by the country.
He did, however, show a concessive spirit in various small ways.
Restrictions on the number of university students were lifted
and difficulties in the way of foreign travel removed. Some Decembrists and Petrashevists were amnestied. One or two
notorious obscurantists were dismissed from high posts. Each
liberal or humane measure, however trivial, was greeted with
enthusiasm and served to sustain the great expectations that
buoyed up all hearts. Hints at coming reforms, were read into
official pronouncements. The time for patchwork measures
seemed at an end.

The slogan of progress was on every tongue. It was the refrain
of the books and periodicals that were appearing in greater
numbers. The press was given licence to touch on questions of
foreign and domestic policy, although certain topics, notably
the abolition of serfdom -- the pivotal issue of the day -- could
not be mentioned. Forbidden subjects were aired in manuscript
pamphlets by both Slavophils and Westernists. In their eagerness
to work for a regenerated Russia the two camps were ready to
bury the hatchet. Not that the Westernists were all of one mind.
They had a left wing with its own organ, the Petersburg monthly Sovremennik (The Contemporary). The magazine was controlled
by Nikolay Nekrasov, a civic poet of great popularity, who
was also a shrewd editor. He leaned heavily on a young man by
the name of Nikolay Chernyshevsky.

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